Morning Melodrama

"She slugged Jean in the eye?" Logan asked Jinx. "You're kidding?"

"I swear it's true," Jinx sighed. "Before we knew it all the Delgato kids were taking on the X-Men. And let me tell you something, the X-Men never knew what hit them."

"They were all in a brawl?" Logan gasped.

"All except Rogue and Toad," She said. "Apparently they were the only ones smart enough to stay out of it!"

"I can't believe the team lost to five kids!" Logan shook his head.

"Five kids who happened to be trained ninjas as well as slightly psychotic," Jinx told him. "Well four of them anyway. And the X-Men were holding back because they were afraid of hurting the kids. I mean you can't exactly expect Kurt to hurt a one year old with flippers."

"Well that I understand," Logan groaned. "Chuck was right, the X-Men need better training."

"Don't be too hard on them," Jinx said. "Let's face it, Althea and her sisters are like berzerkers when they fight. Come from a long line of scrappers and bar room brawlers."

They entered the cafeteria. The X-Men were at one table glaring at Todd and the Delgato siblings. (With the exception of Claudius. He was with his father back home.) Jean had a black eye. Kurt had a bandage on his tail. "Oh this is gonna be a fun two weeks," Logan sighed. "So much for teaching these kids how to get along."

"Don't worry about it," Jinx said. "It's not like stuff like this hasn't happened on our base before. A lot of times new recruits fight amongst each other until they learn to get along. They usually grow out of it."

"You calling me a cheat?" A loud voice shouted.

"You are a cheat!" A second voice shouted. Everyone turned their attention to two large men who looked ready to break each other in half.

"Then again some never grow out of it," Jinx sighed.

Two Joes were glaring at each other. A tough Marine named Leatherneck and an equally tough and stubborn Navy SEAL named Wet Suit were staring each other down. "For the last time you cannot use all blank letters to spell out a word in Scrabble!" Leatherneck shouted.

"Well then you can't use a dictionary to look up every single word!" Wet Suit shouted.

"Can too!"

"Can not!"

"You want a knuckle sandwich!" Leatherneck snapped.

"Are they always like this?" Logan gaped as he saw several Joes tear them apart.

"Unfortunately," Jinx sighed. "But don't let that fool you. They really are good friends."

"With friends like that who needs enemies?" Logan wondered.

Speaking of enemies….

"I can't believe how we got our butts kicked yesterday," Bobby grumbled.

"Well that wasn't a real fight anyway," Jean said. "I mean we couldn't really attack the little kids with our full strength."

"Yeah well you didn't do too well against Althea," Rogue pointed out. "And you weren't exactly holding back!"

"Hey I didn't see you helping us!" Jean snapped.

"It your big mouth that started the fight in the first place!" Rogue snapped back.

"Cut it out you two!" Scott snapped. "We shouldn't be fighting each other!"

"He's right," Kitty glared at Todd and Althea. "We have problems enough with those jerks!"

"I can't believe we're stuck with them for a whole two weeks," Kurt grumbled. "What did we do to deserve this?"

Back at the Delgato table:

"What did we do to deserve this?" Althea snapped glaring at the X-Men. "The last thing I wanna do is train with some stuck up hero wanna bes!"

"Now you know why I hate them!" Todd snapped. "They were always looking down their noses on the Brotherhood. Just cause they had a fancy mansion and training and stuff."

"Yeah well now they're playing on our level!" Daria said.

"That's right!" Brittany said. "Let's just see how well they do with our training!"

"Boy are they in for a shock," Quinn snickered.

"You're right!" Althea said. "It's time those guys got knocked down a peg or two. And just in case the training doesn't do it, I've got a few ideas of my own."

"What?" Todd asked.

"In due time," Althea snickered.

Not far away at another table Xavier was having coffee and breakfast with Hawk and Duke. "General I don't wish to complain," Xavier looked at his breakfast. "I mean I've heard of green eggs and ham, but purple eggs and ham?"

"That's BA for you," Duke grumbled. "Our insane cook we picked up from the bottom of the ocean."

"Don't worry its just dye," Hawk said. "You get used to it. It's when he tries new recipes you have to watch out for."

"Especially ones that have to do with seaweed," Duke groaned.

"Seaweed?" Xavier looked at him.

"Like I said, he's from the bottom of the ocean," Duke told him. "He used to be a cook on a Cobra sub until he was abandoned and left for dead. Judging by his cooking it's not hard to understand why!"

"He managed to survive by creating a generator that made oxygen as well as electricity in the abandoned sub. As well as building an army of battle android troopers to harvest and tend to his seaweed garden as well as getting fish," Hawk told him.

"Interesting," Xavier took a sip of coffee.

"Yeah you pick up a lot of interesting survival tips when you're left under the sea for over a year," Duke said. "Like this coffee for instance. I think this is the best batch of seaweed coffee he's made yet."

"Seaweed coffee?" Xavier blinked. "This coffee is made out of seaweed?"

"That does explain the green streak in it," Hawk said.

"Um Hawk I want to ask you something," Xavier said. "Isn't it traditional for bases to play Reverie in the morning?"

"Oh yeah," Hawk told him. "But every now and then we like to mix it up. You know, make it a little less routine around here."

"That explains why I heard Little Richard at five o clock this morning," Xavier said.

"Here comes Beach Head," Duke motioned. A ranger in a green ski mask stormed up to their table. "He's not happy."

"Is he ever?" Hawk groaned.

"Okay what's all this I hear about those kids staying on the base?" Beach Head snapped. "What is this? An army base or day care?"

"They're not gonna stay here forever Beach Head," Hawk said.

"That's what you said about the penguins!" Beach Head snapped.

"Penguins?" Xavier looked at Duke.

"Don't ask," Duke sighed.

"Look it's only for two weeks Beach Head I promise," Hawk told him.

"Fine," BeachHead grumbled. "Is that seaweed coffee? You know that's the only thing BA can cook decently!"

"Help yourself," Xavier groaned.

Two men walked by following a woman. "She's sitting with me Dusty!" One snapped.

"No she is not! She is sitting with me! And that's final Cross-Country!" Dusty snapped. "Tell him Cover Girl!"

"You two keep this up and I'm not gonna be sitting with either of you!" Cover Girl snapped.

"What the…?" Xavier watched the exchange.

"Oh those two Joes are the latest pair to argue over Cover Girl," Duke said. "I've got five bucks that says she'll pick Dusty."

"No way Cross-Country is more her type!" Jinx and Logan came over.

"Five will get you ten that she dumps both of them for some new guy!" Beach Head said.

"You're on!" Hawk said. "Xavier wanna get in on this?"

"Um…" Xavier started to say something when he felt something tap at his shoe. He looked down and saw a penguin trying to eat his shoelaces.

"Oh great!" Hawk grumbled. "Mitzi got loose again! A while back Iceberg brought some penguins on base to hold onto for a friend of his."

"Now we have a penguin preserve," Jinx snickered.

"Mitzi!" Todd started to chase after the penguin with glee. "Come on Mitzi!"

"Will you cut that out?" Kitty started chasing Todd. "Don't tease her!"

"Somebody get that penguin out of here!" Beach Head shouted.

"Okay Logan when you first told me that the Joes were different than other military units," Xavier cringed. "I didn't really believe you. Now I do."